Profile for Or else o'erleap.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Or else o'erleap. |
| Member number | 335 |
| Title | Law Bringer |
| Postcount | 14579 |
| Homepage | http://www.polarisboard.net |
| Registered | Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| A Fashionably Late Celebratory Gallery Entitled "Nosing Around" in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Tuesday, May 24 2005 12:56
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This is a thread of image horror. But you knew that already. —Alorael, who supposes he will grudgingly congratulate ADoS on this post milestone. Grudgingly, mind you. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Undead Topics Need Loving Too (aka "Give Me Your First-Born") in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, May 23 2005 15:28
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...which does not change the fact that it's still a fragment. —Alorael, who has just posted a dependent clause without a dependent clause. This may alternately be viewed as an intended continuation of TM's post. Choose the way that appeals most to your inner linguist. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Coffe or Tea? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, May 23 2005 09:35
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English requires you to know three forms of a verb: the present/infinitive (speak), the past tense (spoke), and the past participle (spoken). Everything else almost always follows simple rules. The exception is "to be" but that verb seems to be highly irregular in every language. Have/has is a little weird too, and I'm sure there are others (spelling often changes even if pronunciation is regular, but verbs are largely simple to conjugate. For instance, if you have an infinitive, that's the present tense for everything but third person singular, which is formed by adding an 'S' to the end. Present participle is formed with an added "ing." Past tense is all the same, and past participle is either used as an adjective and not changed or in a perfect tense and conjugated by the form of "has" used. The fun is figuring out the three essential conjugations. Which go with lay and which with lie? Why is it bought for buy? —Alorael, who doesn't have any trouble figuring out the gender of a noun that's already written or spoken. In Spanish, O is masculine and A is feminine, generally. Words that end in something else are a tossup. The question is when you know a word ends with one or the other but can't remember which. Mochilo or mochila? Carretera or carretero? You usually can be understood either way, but it can be the difference between sounding like a stupid American and sounding like a less stupid American. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Beta Call for Mad Abortion in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, May 23 2005 09:14
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I came very close to moving this to the BoA forum. —Alorael, who doesn't think this product is ready for phase I trials yet. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Paradox of Technology and Jobs. in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Monday, May 23 2005 09:12
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The problem is the continuing belief that everyone must be employed. If so many jobs are expendable, what we should be worrying about is finding ways to comfortably support people who are doing valuable work (valuable being the sticky term) that doesn't pay enough. —Alorael, who always finds it interesting that the commonly accepted result of a world where all labor is automated is a world where everyone is unhappy and starving. Aren't labor-saving devices supposed to be helpful, not harmful? Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| THE GREAT DEBATE PART II in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, May 22 2005 18:07
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No. The post before yours was a bump, VHC. Your post is spam. —Alorael, whose post straddles the line between terse explanation and spam. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Capitalism ho! in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Sunday, May 22 2005 17:54
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America has been off the gold standard for some time now, as someone else pointed out. Money is only worth the faith we have in the U.S. government. Anyone who "alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any [coins]" or "mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing... with intent to render [paper money] unfit to be reissued" is a criminal. The intent of the law, however, is to protect against fraud. Nobody cares if you burn your money. Nobody cares if you squish it either. —Alorael, who is amazed by the synonym abuse. It looks like the American legal system may have room for some spammers! Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| more help in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 19:46
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That's two counts of spam, and Spring, this isn't your first warning. —Alorael, who does give some credit for hiding spam behind other spam and posting three times the number of words. In this case it just wasn't quite enough camoflage. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| whats your favorite... in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 19:38
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Actually, you can't see all the reactions with a mixed party either. The responses are based on whether or not you have a party member of a certain race, so you can of course only see half of the possible responses. —Alorael, who believes that while there are quests you can only do with a nephil in your party (this may be true of sliths as well), there are no quests that require your party to be entirely human. Avernum is racist. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Undead Topics Need Loving Too (aka "Give Me Your First-Born") in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 19:36
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Posting in this topic gives you no special dispensation to post profanity or spam. Cease and desist, sirs! —Alorael, who wouldn't want to be forced to lock this. That would be most tragic. Ominous threats, on the other hand, are always in vogue. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Coffe or Tea? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 10:43
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Spanish has a few more conjugations than French, I believe, but the words are all much more phonetic and there are fewer accents to remember. I haven't studied French, so I can't really opine (not that that has ever stopped anyone!), but why do you find Spanish more difficult? —Alorael, whose personal opinion is that English has to be one of the hardest languages to work with. Conjugation is theoretically laughably easy, but it seems that practically every other verb is irregular, nothing is spelled the way it sounds, and words are borrowed blithely from any and all other languages. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Two Years and Two Days! in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, May 21 2005 10:37
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Nope. The UBB isn't kind enough to allow personalized timezone settings. It's annoying like that. —Alorael, who posted this solely to increase his upward creep in the rankings. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Capitalism ho! in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:32
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I'm a day less than a month shy of my 56th birthday. A poll conducted when polls were new and shiny on Spidweb showed that I was timeless, but "older than the bottom layer of grease on the movie theater floor" was a close second. Who am I to disagree with the voice of the people on my age? —Alorael, who would never lie about a thing like this. No, never. Well, hardly ever. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| strange question in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Friday, May 20 2005 19:26
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The Great Leap Forward may have been less dodgy but it was more deadly. China is not currently communist, really. The Chinese Communist Party all but abandoned communism after Mao's death. The CCP did not abandon authoritarian control in any way, shape, or form, and it didn't suffer the kind of armed revolution that has toppled so many other communist regimes. "Communism with Chinese characteristics" or whatever the current jargon is amounts to capitalism. It's not quite identical to Western laissez-faire principles, but it's getting there. —Alorael, who dislikes the idea of skirting the edge (or skipping blithely over the edge) of academic integrity by lying about the nature of a source. Also note that an interview is only as valid a source as the person interviewed, and nobody here has any recognized or formal background in the study of communism. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Woah Crazy!! in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 20:26
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I'd call it a sounder basis than having no common interests whatsoever. —Alorael, who doesn't mean interests so much as attitudes. You can make common ground in interests, but basic personality can be a very good indicator of whether or not you should ever step within thirty feet of another person. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Drakefyre, Mariann, Jeff, Linda.. you're all dead. in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 20:12
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No. Firstly, the member numbers don't shift when an account disappears. It's only the latest member number that gets weird. Secondly, TM's account is before any account that got deleted (that first one being MM's #5). —Alorael, who has had rum cake. It is alcoholic in its way. Adding more rum after the baking makes it much more alcoholic, but most bakers seem to forget that step. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Are people inherently amoral? in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 20:08
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I don't think humans are inherently moral beings, but I don't believe every baby is a tabula rasa waiting to be filled with good or evil. We are social animals, arguably even herd animals. We're born with the morals of monkeys, more or less (although of course there are individual deviations). That means we have certain instincts beyond true amorality: we aren't predisposed to kill people out of boredom, for instance. Beyond these most basic principles of interaction, I'd call all morality social constructs. —Alorael, who just isn't sure where the line between basic herd instinct and social construct should be drawn. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Okay I give in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 19:53
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There are three on the altar, one more close to the center of the second level, one below the northwest corner of the second level (you can reach it from the southwest corner by going straight north), and one on the top level. I recall one on the corpse of a slith that can be reached only by stairs from a level below, but I can't remember where it is. That's one too many according to the annotated maps, but it would account for getting only two from the altar. —Alorael, who does not have the best memory for item locations. Make sure you've done the usual wall bumping. Lost B is filled with secret passages. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| strange question in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 19:43
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Alec already summed this up, but some people seem to have missed it. Communism does not imply a totalitarian or even authoritarian government. In fact, the ultimate goal of communism is far closer to anarchy. In practice, however, communist regimes have always been imposed from above by an authoritarian government (I would even say fascist, although the label fascism never seems to be used in tandem with communism). That's part of the reason for communism's terrible reputation today. While it presents a utopian vision, the implementations have been almost uniformly horrific or at least distasteful. Socialism tends to pick up a bad reputation from communism, as socialist principles are the basis of communism. Socialism isn't necessarily communist, though, and others have already pointed out successful examples of fairly socialist countries. A government or party can call itself socialist without being socialist just like it can call itself democratic without being democratic. I think South America can provide stunning examples of both, often simultaneously. —Alorael, who thinks of economic policy on a scale from purely socialist to purely capitalist. No country that he can think of is all one or the other, but some clearly lean to one side. America is rather capitalist, Scandinavian countries tend to be more socialist. As the political compass test will show you, that scale has nothing to do with authoritarian/libertarian policies. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| Hello Everybody! in General | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 06:11
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You all act like you've never desperately tried to have your pants returned to you. Come on, people! —Alorael, who doesn't quite understand why Alec suddenly views his pantless state in a different light from all the other times he has been pantless. Perhaps it is the theft that matters more than the object stolen. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| the seasons un avernum in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Thursday, May 19 2005 06:04
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I can understand why Erika brags about being responsible for the survival of all humans in Avernum. She's that kind of person. What I don't understand is why she would brag about the plants she didn't make when the ones she did make are every bit as impressive. Unless she views lies as preferable to truth, which is a stretch even for Erika, her boast makes no sense at all. —Alorael, who would be more impressed with nutritious fungus than glowing fungus anyway. Wizards have a history of making things glow in Exile/Avernum. Light and Long Light, glowstones, flashy runes, and the like are all illuminated. Wizards usually don't make things that people eat. (Priests do, though. Thank the gods for manna!) Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| RWG in Richard White Games | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 16:37
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Combining "Richard White" with "Ocean Bound," "Lost Souls," or "Galactic Core," or "Chromite" in Google turned up nothing more promising. Richard is conspicuously AWOL. —Alorael, who would be quite willing to grant RW leave if it would prevent further GCs. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| A Map? in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 16:22
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There is also a map file that comes with Avernum 1. It should be in the same folder as the application or executable. —Alorael, who finds that map quite helpful. The map Kel linked too is more helpful, of course, but it's also a little bit of cheating. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| the seasons un avernum in The Avernum Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 16:19
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Strange that Erika would take credit for the one thing she didn't do. Who's more senile, Erika or Solberg? —Alorael, who would actually chalk that one up to a Jeff mistake. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
| E3: Ruined World -- Room in Sulfras's Cave in The Exile Trilogy | |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Wednesday, May 18 2005 06:04
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I think it was properly camouflaged even so. Perhaps it might not pass undetected without the presence of so much more flagrant spam elsewhere, but by comparison it was a positively meaningful post. —Alorael, who may have to ask Thuryl to give posting lessons. If there must be spammers, at least the can be unobtrusive spammers. This may assume too much intelligence and adaptability on their part, but it's an effort that should be made. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |