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Uber-Long Census in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, December 17 2006 14:14 Profile Homepage #23
quote:
Originally written by Drakefyre
Nice myspace survey you stuck in there
Yes?

—Alorael, who has just learned that despite the obvious inspiration from possible (and pronounceable) nucleotide sequences, Gattaca is not a sequence referenced anywhere in the film and thus should be treated as an ordinary proper noun. Oops.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Uber-Long Census in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Sunday, December 17 2006 09:11 Profile Homepage #14
Name: I'm quite fond of Johnsé...
Birthday: 6/20/49
Birthplace: Silver Spring, MD
Current location: Undisclosed, but uncomfortably close to you. Or Alaska. Take your pick.
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: Brown
Height: 5'9". I think.
Right-handed or left-handed? Right, but I'm still sinister!
Your heritage: Mostly Russian Jew, but with a hearty dose of Austrian and Irish.
The shoes you wore today: Hiking boots
Your weakness: Skribbane.
Your fears: Dying alone. I want to take a few people with me! And people. People in numbers are terrifying.
Your perfect pizza: Thick crust, no cheese, lots of tomato, and lots of veggies. Fungi are not veggies.
Goal you would like to achieve this year: With only 14 days left? I'd settle for survival. I'm not too ambitious.
Your most-overused phrase on an instant messenger: ...
Thoughts upon waking up: My mind is a void for at least half an hour after awakening.
Your best physical feature: My right elbow has a fascination that few can resist.
Your bedtime: Arbitrarily between midnight and whenever insomnia ends.
Your most-missed memory: Misc! Har har, I'm an elitist oldbie.
Pepsi or Coke? Cranberry juice.
McDonalds or Burger King? False! Fast food is an abomination.
Single or Group Dates? Single.
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea? Honest Tea.
Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla. I wouldn't say no to either, though!
Cappuccino or Coffee? No, thank you. I'll stick with skribbane.
Do you smoke? No.
Do you swear? Very little.
Do you sing? Not if anyone else can help it.
Do you shower daily? Every night.
Have you ever been in love? Yes.
Do you want to go to college? With all those pedestrians? Sign me up!
Do you want to get married? I'll settle for a civil union.
Do you believe in yourself? Only when I clap.
Do you get motion sickness? No.
Do you think you are attractive? My right elbow is.
Are you a health freak? I'm a lapsed health freak.
Do you get along with your parents? Quite well, thank you.
Do you like thunderstorms? As long as I don't have to get anything done outside.
Do you play an instrument? The noble flauto dolce, flauta de pico, blockflöte, or recorder.
In the past month have you consumed alcohol? Yes.
In the past month have you smoked tobacco? No.
In the past month have you been on drugs? Skribbane.
In the past month have you gone on a date? No.
In the past month have you gone to a mall? I heartily loathe malls. I did go about a month ago, but only because the nearest Apple Store is in a mall.
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos? No.
In the past month have you eaten sushi? No, but not by choice.
In the past month have you been on stage? Yes, but I wasn't performing.
In the past month have you been dumped? Yes. By someone I didn't know. It was awkward.
In the past month have you gone skinny dipping: I don't do water, clothed or otherwise.
In the past month have you stolen anything? No.
Ever been drunk? Very, very rarely. I do not recommend it.
Ever been called a tease? No.
Ever been beaten up? Not very effectively. I currently look like I have been, though, which has prompted all kinds of sympathetic responses. Bike accidents are fun.
Ever shoplifted? No.
How do you want to die? With all my faculties. And, if possible, with company.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Young at heart. Unfortunately, I'm already a bitter old man. Sigh.
What country would you most like to visit? I feel like I should go to the UK at some point. Germany is also on my list, but mostly for the people I need to visit there.
Number of CDs you own: Probably around 20.
Number of piercings: 0
Number of tattoos: 0.
Number of things in your past you regret: I regret nothing! Oh, except that stuff...
Initials: JPLS.
Last thing you ate: Cheerios.
For or against same sex marriage: For, but the state needs to stop using religious terms for legal status.
Do you believe in God? Yes.
Favorite holiday: Passover.
Do you download music? Absolutely not with a big asterisk.
Do you care if your socks are dirty or not? Give me clean socks or bare feet.
Do you love anyone? Yes.
Do you like Bush? Strong negative.
Has anyone ten years or more older than you ever hit on you? Not that I know of.
How much money do you have? In cash, about $15. It's time for a bank run.
What was the last movie you watched? GATTACA
Do you wear contacts? No.
Where was the last place you went besides your house? CVS to pick up some Neosporin.
How many pets do you have? 2 cats
What do you usually order from Starbucks? I don't do Starbucks. Fight the power!
Have you ever fired a gun? Need you ask?
Favorite TV show? I don't do television.
Do you have an iPod? No.
Favorite movie of all time: Probably Adaptation, but it's very mood dependent
Have you ever been caught doing something you weren't supposed to? Frequently, starting when I was, oh, two years old.
What's your favorite flower? Pink powderpuff. They're adorable!
Butter, plain, or salted popcorn? I don't do popcorn either!
What magazines do you read? Currently down to Mac Addict, The Scientist, and the New Yorker. Even with that list I'm way, way behind.
Have you ever ridden in a limo? Yes.
What’s your favorite smell? I have an underdeveloped sense of smell. I don't really care as long as it's not hideous.
Favorite college football team: I don't do football. I think there's a theme here.
Favorite cereal: Cheerios or Life.
Do you drive? Yes.
What's the longest time you've gone without sleep? 33 hours.
Last time you went bowling? Several years ago.
Where is the weirdest place you have slept? If there's nowhere good to sleep I don't sleep.
Last time you were at work? Friday.

—Alorael, who dislikes having to come up with signatures for these things. He just creates self-referential ones and hope nobody calls him on it.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Background in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 19:44 Profile Homepage #33
And Flat Earthers, and Hollow Earthers, and the list goes on. But I still think the nuts pick the other sciences.

—Alorael, who blames it on legitimate claims. There just isn't that much ridiculous geology out there. But relativity? That's wacky! String theory is a bad joke. And the theory of evolution? Pfft.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The Spiderweb Art Movement. in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 18:46 Profile Homepage #101
The uninked pencil comes out nearly invisible when skanned. I can't actually tell what I'm looking at unless I zoom in.

—Alorael, who has now slid the final steps on his descent into criticizing art. No, this is not at all the same as being an art critic.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Background in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 12:41 Profile Homepage #30
People have less anecdotal evidence about cars, though. If it breaks, most people take it in to be repaired. If we break, we get better. We break a lot, and we get better a lot. We also tend to do things that have only minimal relevance to getting better yet somehow become vastly important to us.

—Alorael, who would like to have a worn with them. They say all kinds of things that are, in fact, terrible advice.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
8000: Pseudoscience Postravaganza in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 11:34 Profile Homepage #76
The effect can be roughly explained by gravity from the half of the sphere to one side of you being canceled by the gravity of the half on the other side. (Yes, if you're not exactly in the middle then the halves aren't really halves, but gravitational force's dependence on distance means the forces are equal in all directions.) Once you're inside the shell, there's no gravity.

That means that if you fell into a hole, you'd keep falling at the same rate until you hit the other side of the Earth. Given that the shell is pretty deep since we don't dig holes and fall in all the time, you'd probably be dead anyway. You'd just have more time to contemplate being dead as you fell through the miles of emptiness.

On the other hand, because the Earth isn't still your path wouldn't be straight across the sphere. You'd actually seem to curve depending on the speed of the Earth's rotation and orbit. I don't know enough about either to plot a path.

If you did survive hitting the other side, you might be able to walk around because of the Earth's rotation. It might be hard, though, because I don't think the Earth rotates fast enough to "hold" you against the Earth very hard even at the equator.

—Alorael, who needs some time with a pencil, paper, and a calculator to work all this out. Maybe he'll just leave it as one of those great exercises for the reader.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Happy Hanukah in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 11:15 Profile Homepage #14
Yes, but that's because English enjoys translation butchery. It's a kippah anyway! And if she likes it, it's a keepah in Boston. For that matter, I spell the hoiday (C)han(n)uk(k)a(h).

—Alorael, who wishes everyone a happy one. He's not going to write it again when it takes that much effort.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Background in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 11:08 Profile Homepage #28
Oh, sure. There are crackpots in every imaginable field, and crackpots have very good imaginations. My point is that most people can accept that they understand Newtonian physics roughly but that quantum mechanics are beyond them and string theory is completely out of the question. ("Even string theory experts don't understand string theory!") Relativity probably gets more pseudo-knowledge because of sci-fi, but it's not too bad.

Medicine is too much of a pop science. Everyone needs to interact with medicine, everyone reads about medicine, and the news loves medical stories, and everyone decides that anecdotes are statistical evidence and the newspaper is a peer reviewed article (for some values of everyone). It becomes a recipe for poor medical choices by people who think they know better and lawsuits from medical panics. Bendectin, anyone?

—Alorael, who thinks that of the usual high school sciences chemistry gets the fewest lunatics. Maybe it's just because it doesn't have the same immediately applicable macroscopic effects in very basic levels as biology and physics. Overall, though, it's probably earth sciences that attract the least attention period and thus the fewest nuts. Global warming excepted, of course.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I Have A Beef With You All in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 10:35 Profile Homepage #65
Oh no! This has turned into the kind of debate that I have to respond to point by point!

quote:
Originally written by Garrison:

I called you a protobacterium, what more do you want?
I'd be offended if you called me a protobacterium. A proteobacterium is more acceptable. Kel may be gutlike, but he's not primitive!

quote:
Originally written by Thralni:

Yes, i totally agree with you, and I think that the older, more prominent members here are getting increasingly arrogant and unwelcoming
I'm not sure that anyone (we or they, depending on your perspective) is getting more arrogant. There have always been arrogant oldbies and there always will be. It tends to run in cycles, but I haven't noticed any real outbreak in recent weeks.

quote:
Originally written by Garrison
Each issue you took up and argued against was done so in a factually based and consistent manner; however, my question is whether it was necessary to destroy each of Synergy's points. Knocking down his beliefs with the type of science that he objected against was not productive after around post 30, in my opinion.
Well, yes. In a debate, which is what that thread was whether or not it was intended to be one, destroying points is exactly what you need to do. We also weren't destroying his all points with science, because many of his points weren't scientific. When he was off in his science we pointed it out; when he was off in his beliefs about the current policies and actions of the scientific esetablishment we pointed that out too. I guess I'm just wasting time again, though, because you've admitted that it's a gut reaction and not a carefully thought out one.

—Alorael, who doesn't understand what makes Kel the wrongdoer here. There were certainly far worse offenders in that thread. Among them is a certain individual just finished a post with this very sentence.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
House Unshaperlike Activities Committee in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 10:29 Profile Homepage #47
There are two meanings of shaper. One is a shaper as one who uses shaping to make critters. The other meaning is the sect of Shapers, a group that includes non-shaper guardians and agents and soldiers and mages.

I agree with your takes on magic and shaping, although I think they're probably parallel uses of essence and not really tied together. You can be a skilled shaper without knowing a thing about magic or vice versa. On the other hand, healing magic apparently comes under the heading of shaping and blurs those lines.

—Alorael, who is sure that everyone draws a line between magic and shaping in Geneforge. The Shapers control the latter more stringently than the former. The Trakovites object to the latter more than the former. It may be less of a matter of what goes in than what comes out, though: shaping is whatever gives you cute (or hideous) creatures that obey your every command. Magic just tends to make things go boom.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Monarch in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Saturday, December 16 2006 10:22 Profile Homepage #4
If you want to get information on the baton you'll have to go south another section, fight a few more things, and talk to the imprisoned shaper to the southwest.

—Alorael, who didn't have 7 leadership and got acceptable mileage out of the control baton. He also didn't have much in the way of help except for his creations. Monarch is exactly the time for a few cryoas to back you up.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
House Unshaperlike Activities Committee in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, December 15 2006 15:58 Profile Homepage #32
The countering point that you apparently don't follow is that essence is not inherenty tied to shaping. Just like Avernum's magic is all based on energy, Geneforge's magic is based on energy and essence. Shaping happens to be based on essence too, but that doesn't mean healing and shaping are any more related than Searer and shaping.

—Alorael, who thinks that case is quite clear. It's been made obvious that there are plentty of mages who aren't shapers and that regulations of magic are an entirely different category.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Spiderweb Games Engine Preferences Poll in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Friday, December 15 2006 09:40 Profile Homepage #4
I don't think E1 had random junk items and I can't remember E2, but E3 definitely introduced them.

—Alorael, who has found that he generally prefers a mix of Avernum and G4. The problem is he likes them as units. Mix and match could end very badly.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I Have A Beef With You All in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 22:44 Profile Homepage #34
My money is on a marvel of engineering composed of clockwork and chimeric muscles. The whole thing is powered by babies.

I'll admit that when I'm debating my disinterest is questionable. Yes, I let ad hominem slip in because I was more interested in the real debate and Synergy seems capable of surviving it. Maybe I should have pointed it out, but I don't think you would have listened, Alec, and it would have just gotten in the way of the real issue.

In the end, though, I don't really think what you said was out of line. It's not particularly nice and it is particularly Alec, neither of which are (yet) crimes. I just don't think they really helped further a debate. If you viewed Synergy's position as purely rhetorical, then rhetoric was called for. I think it's possible to have a real discussion with him about medicine without degenerating into a shouting match, which we really did.

Skimming is a matter of opinion. He did pick and choose his points to dispute, but he also couldn't have actually read everything carefully. Having to field the barrage of words we put up would be difficult.

And I think nobody disputes your points besides calling you mean because you make good points. I just don't see how they're strengthened by spite. If you took out the attacks, there would be no flimsy shield of ignoring you for being rude.

—Alorael, whose complaint after the fact is that Synergy could somewhat reasonably bring forceful closure to the debate by claiming it wasn't civil anymore. If it had stayed civil it could have ended more satisfyingly. The erasures can be taken in good faith as matters stand, but there would be no excuse for them without the vitriol in the debate.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
8000: Pseudoscience Postravaganza in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 22:26 Profile Homepage #67
Hm. Is fire still available?

—Alorael, who hopes to collect huge royalties from raging wildfires in California. It's an absolute goldmine!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Physics Background in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 22:16 Profile Homepage #2
But I think there's a very good point in that. People who don't know about a subject, particularly a science, are fine. You can lead a productive and satisfying life without knowing a thing about quantum mechanics. It's the ones who believe that they grasp a subject when they really don't who cause problems.

—Alorael, who thinks that it's rarely true of physics or chemistry or even most biology. Medicine and psychology seem to be the fields where everyone has a pet theory with far too little technical understanding of the subject.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 19:18 Profile Homepage #104
Aizo, Pralgad, and Vantanas appear in one of the books available in E3/A3. Doston is the continent that's a pure fabrication by this community.

—Alorael, who uses "this" very loosely. Please don't respond with angry rants.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I Have A Beef With You All in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 19:17 Profile Homepage #20
I don't know. The condescension in that medicine thread bothered me, but there was plenty to go around. Synergy, you either don't respect the posters who argued against you or the arguments they used. I think there was a little bit of both, and just because it was phrased politely doesn't make it imperceptible. Debate becomes a frustrating exercise when points are dismissed as "you'll know better when you're older."

On the other hand, abuse of Synergy's philosophy for itself and not for its merits was rampant, and abuse of Synergy personally crept in too. Alec was the obvious offender, but he certainly wasn't alone.

I don't have any pretty conclusion to draw, really. We were nasty, and we're still nasty over it. Without agreement on the rules of engagement, so to speak, these debates become messy, angry, and worthless.

—Alorael, who thinks that it would be much more interesting face to face. When he wasn't being shouted down or skimming because of the volume of counter-arguments, Synergy actually had some good points and, more importantly, he may have been willing to listen to reason. Yes, that's conceited. Without limits on the volume of information regurgitated or the number of participants, however, it's not a fruitful exercise.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I Have A Beef With You All in General
Or else o'erleap.
Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 17:19 Profile Homepage #8
I don't really understand why Synergy decided to spectacularly end that argument, but I do think that if you're arguing you can be reasonably expected to know what you're talking about. No, we're not all expected to understand quantum mechanics, but if you want to make that part of you're argument then I think you invite that expectation.

Spiderweb isn't really merciless on poor spelling. We have very little tolerance for people whose writing would be rendered significally more comprehensible by a quick run through a spell checker. I accept that. First of all, Spiderweb has been that way for years, through times of many posts and lean times. Secondly, it's still a politeness issue: if you don't care enough about everyone else here to type competently, we don't care enough to read it.

[Edit: Maybe some of us are familiar with chatspeak. I'm not. Most of my internet communication is with Spiderweb, and Spiderweb doesn't do chat. When I see it, it takes me some time to process it. Besides, every community is entitled to its own rules of conduct, and Spiderweb's include semistandard English.]

—Alorael, who doesn't think there's a post drought anymore. And filling the gaps with illegibility and stupidity is still not a good solution at all.

[ Thursday, December 14, 2006 17:21: Message edited by: Guilt by Dissociation ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Best Game Ever? in Geneforge 4: Rebellion
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 13:04 Profile Homepage #22
It was possible in E3, BoE, and Nethergate. The difference in Nethergate is that the keywords are blue so you know exactly what to click on for more information.

—Alorael, who missed important dialogues in E3/BoE several times just because he didn't think to check one word.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 5 Early, Early Notes in Avernum 4
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 10:26 Profile Homepage #102
Maybe it would be cool, but it's pretty clear that it's not happening.

—Alorael, who doesn't think Lord of the Rings fits in the world of Avernum. Scrappy heroes who are more or less in it for the loot and bureaucrats who pay them don't exactly meet the requirements of epic fantasy.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
1000th in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Thursday, December 14 2006 00:06 Profile Homepage #7
Edited for accuracy and removal of that pesky first person.

Hey, I just think of it as one of the perks of having been around for a while. I get to get all misty-eyed while reminiscing about the good old days, and when the newcomers ask me to explain I can just sigh and say that words don't do it justice.

—Alorael, who has decided that Misc. was a pretty good thing before its last days. It had its moments, and nobody ever had to justify creating a thread solely for the purpose of editing others' posts.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
1000th in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 22:11 Profile Homepage #5
The prophecies don't speak of post numbers. They speak of forums. While forums can be and have been purged, the numbers aren't reused.

—Alorael, who would like a moment of silence for forum 11. Misc, you will always be in the hearts of those who remember you.

[ Thursday, December 14, 2006 00:03: Message edited by: Psychosomateomics ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Nothing Plus Nothing Equals Nothing in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 16:14 Profile Homepage #62
Synergy chooses alternative medicine because it jibes with his personal philosophy and cosmology. That seems like a poor basis for medical decisions to me, but everyone has a right to make such determinations for himself. He can even try to convince others, although I feel obligated to do my best to convince them otherwise.

Public policy is another matter. There's only so much money for grants, and it needs to go where it will do some good. Yes, some should be spent on preliminary studies of alternative practices, but unless they show promise it's not just unnecessary to fund them. It's downright immoral, and it causes unnecessary human suffering and death.

—Alorael, whose personal beliefs reject mystical nonsense about personal energies and mind over matter. People are big bags of chemical reacions, and if your reactions aren't running right poking them isn't the solution (Thuryl pun!). Dumping more chemicals in can be.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I was afraid this day would come.... in General
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
 written Wednesday, December 13 2006 16:02 Profile Homepage #46
Yes, I said early August because that's what the record shows. It just doesn't feel like he's been gone that long. Somehow my memory has provided plenty of instances of TM delivering his best verbal drubbings to everyone involved in the month of scandalous posting.

—Alorael, who can now see how nostalgia works. If TM were here he would be abrasive and unhelpful. In his absence, however, he becomes entirely more palatable.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

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