Profile for Kelandon
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Kelandon |
| Member number | 4045 |
| Title | Off With Their Heads |
| Postcount | 7968 |
| Homepage | http://home.sanbrunocable.com/~tommywatts03/ |
| Registered | Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
Recent posts
Pages
| Author | Recent posts |
|---|---|
| Ghosts of Stalin in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 22:19
Profile
Homepage
quote:Given that you've pretty much admitted that you have no idea what I actually think and are just arguing against what you imagine I must think, I suppose it's obvious why I'm not going to bother pursuing this argument, but this particular claim is one that I find wholly wrong-headed. Capitalism doesn't create a pure meritocracy; nothing does. Without a pure meritocracy, the poor can't be blaimed entirely for their status. This seems like common sense. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Ghosts of Stalin in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 14:23
Profile
Homepage
I'm fairly certain that I did such an analysis of something out of NTH (or possibly Canopy) at some point. I may have done it here, though, which means it's dead now. The crazy thing was that I was able to tease out what TM was trying to say, more or less, which I thought was going to be impossible. I had to do the same thing as I did above, though: correct misused words, fill gaps, and paraphrase. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suggestion for increased replay value: Add the three remaining classes in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 13:38
Profile
Homepage
I just checked. I played that GF2 game with the same fyora and drayk all the way through, without any magic or hand-to-hand combat skills at all. I suspect that there's enough replay value in sub-optimal setups that adding new classes is not necessary, as SoT has indicated. I do like Vlish's idea, though. [ Monday, May 29, 2006 13:38: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Ghosts of Stalin in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 12:44
Profile
Homepage
I'd like to take TM's argument apart and see if I can understand it and why it didn't work. I'm doing this more as an exercise as a writing teacher — since I do teach essay writing as part of an SAT class — than anything else, really. Pleasant answer. Not much, but pleasant. I, too, think a blend of crap with ambrosia would possess a more appealing boquet of fragrances. I'd call this fluff, because it does not make an argument. It identifies your name-calling position (socialism = ambrosia, capitalism = crap), but it does not actually make an argument. But then, I suppose the onus lies on me to prove why it's imperative for me to prove why this proposed "solution" is bad. But that's difficult, considering that you leave the crap-to-good ratio undefined You have still not begun to make an argument. but for any of capitalism to be preserved, the only moral assertion you could possibly make is that competition in a society should be awarded accordingly, 'socialism' being factored in to guarantee fair competition I take this to mean, basically, "If you have any capitalism, then competition in a society should be awarded accordingly." This makes no sense, and I'd like to dissect why. Let's try and rephrase that "then" part in the active voice: "One should award competition in a society accordingly." This has two problems: "award competition" and "accordingly." Do you mean reward competition? And according to what? I take "accordingly" to mean "in accordance with some principle," but I don't know what that principle is. This is simply poor word choice: you've used words that don't mean anything in context with each other. This is also kind of a weird assumption: capitalism cannot exist without competition of the kind that you're expecting based on your later discussion. I'd be more careful about stating exactly what you mean by "competition" straight out in order to make this part of the argument less leaky. Which, of course, is still a tricky assertion-- what about inheritance? Wasn't the father (or ideally mother/father in your postmodern utopia) fighting for his son's well-being when he did that much better than his competitors? Ah, but wait, his son still gets to go to the same schools as everyone else. But what if there's a private school that wants to compete with the socialized school? Is that contrary to competition? I understand that these are some of basic questions in attempting to create equality of opportunity in a situation that does not have equality of outcome, but it's still a leap from "Competition will exist, but the government will create an equal playing field" to "Inequality of outcome virtually guarantees inequality of opportunity," which seems to be where you started and where you went. It would be really nice if you filled in the gap explicitly: "competition" (by your definition) ensures inequality of outcome. Then show how this creates a contradiction: that capitalism must include competition, and competition creates inequality of outcome, which in turn creates inequality of opportunity, which means that there can't be a level playing field. Thus, capitalism and socialism together can't create fairness. But let's set practical difficulties aside, since I have no idea what shape your postmodern utopia will take precisely. I have no idea what makes a mix of socialism and capitalism "postmodern," but I suspect that you don't, either. I think that you've just thrown in this word because you like how it sounds, and you think that it makes you sound smart. This is either poor word-choice or a poorly-explained point. Either way, poor writing is detracting from your argument. What of the means of production? If competition is still a value, then every factory worker will still be working for her/himself. Competition has a value? Competiveness is still among society's values? Again, your poor word choice and awkward construction is making your point less clear. But if everyone is still fighting for the self (and has the possibility of reaping the rich rewards for doing so!), and is prompted to do so by the society's ideology and the gov't's methodology, then what is the imperative to maintain competition? That's "incentive," not "imperative." Again, poor word choice is making your point less clear. The people on top, after having struggled oh-so-valiantly to do so (well, hypothetically, anyway), will be the first ones to try and preserve their positions. This sentence makes sense, but it makes sense partly because I know how this argument goes, having considered it myself some time ago. Once I picked up on your main point — inequality of outcome guarantees inequality of opportunity, which kills all possibility of "fairness" — I didn't have to read the rest of the post to know what you were going to say. But let's continue. Competition in this sense ceases being a functional agent of meritocracy (if ever it was one-- hence the 'postmodern utopia') and becomes an ideological burden, which shifts the blame of exploitation to the exploited. This is the point where you really lose control of your language and of your rhetoric. It's not clear what "competition... being a functional agent of meritocracy" means. I do know that postmodern authors and critics have loved the term "agency," and I know that they use it rather vaguely sometimes, so I'm guessing that this is where you've gotten it. What this literally means, as far as I can tell, is that competition no longer causes meritocracy. In order for this to make sense, you have to fill a gap: competition creates social stratification. Competition, as you've imagined it, invariably creates richer and poorer classes. You also have to insert a summarizing sentence for the point that you've just made: the rich self-perpetuate if given the opportunity to do so. The rich help their friends and family, and they generally don't do so on the basis of merit, so the system doesn't end up being "fair." But there's another thing: you've only established, up to this point, that the rich and powerful will help people that they like, which mucks up any claim to meritocracy. How the hell do you get from "The rich will help their friends and family not entirely on the basis of merit" to "The poor will blame themselves for being poor"? Do you think that the poor don't know that the rich help out their friends and family not entirely on the basis of merit? Have you ever talked with someone who grew up in a low-income family? The poor know (indeed, all too well) that a mixed-socialist system isn't a pure meritocracy! They don't blame themselves for being poor, most of the time. The ones I've known have blamed the rich, because of favoritism! But even apart from that it will cause solvency challenges My first thought was that you were trying to dissolve something. My second thought was that you were suggesting that communism invariably leads to unpayable debt. Now I'm guessing that you're just saying, "Your proposed system may not solve anything," which isn't really what "solvency challenges" would mean, but meh. Poor word choice, again. your postmodern utopia has no reason to exist in comparison to, say, a communism (your "blend" minus all the capitalist stuff). I smell a transition to a proposed alternative! This is only the second time in your argument that I've actually been able to follow what's going on without trouble! If your assertion is that human nature will be a sabot in the gears of a communist society A sabot... a shoe? A shoe in the gears? What are you going on about? And that wasn't and wouldn't be my assertion, but whatever. then consider how humans thought in the dark ages. Hell, consider how they thought in the 80's I'm considering. You surely are talking about intellectual trends, not "how humans thought" — that is, movements of popular opinion. Again, poor word choice. Clearly, any changes in the way people think are artificed, but artificial is not the same as erroneous. In the context of human thought, human ideas are as real as one can possibly get. If the problem is the way people actually think-- ie, the current nature of most humans-- then the solution to make communism feasible is to determine the causes for damaging thoughts and work with the person to change those thought processes. Another massive leap: from "Changes of public opinion occur" to "Human nature itself can be changed deliberately." This is a counter-argument to an argument that I wouldn't make, though, so I won't go too much into it here. If human thought patterns were immutable, history would never have changed in the first place since people would always be reproducing the same circumstances. This completely doesn't follow, partly because you're confusing human ideas and human nature. If human thought patterns were somehow sacred and not to be touched, then who is to object to genocide or imperialism? Huh? Do you mean that people didn't object to them before and now they do? If so, say so explicitly. (Again, fill in the gaps!) If human nature is an impedement for the greatest good for all individuals, we must get rid of it. You mean, "change" it. Again, poor word choice is making your meaning obscure. ------ TM: My advice to you is to bring your writing back to basics. You're making a lot of errors in your word choices because you're trying to say things that sound fancy and scary without a really good grasp of what your advanced-vocab words mean. You can write everything that you're trying to say in a much simpler fashion, and I suggest that you do so in order to be understood. Also, your writing is plagued with gaps in reasoning that the reader has to fill in. Make sure that you build your argument with every appropriate step so that there aren't missing pieces. One way to do this is to make sure that you've built the entire argument in the abstract ("Competition creates stratification, stratification creates favoritism, favoritism mucks with meritocracy") in writing before you start inserting examples. Then don't delete the argument in the abstract! Those points will summarize your major examples. Your writing shows promise, but it really needs some work before it can be effective. EDIT: This is how I would respond to TM's argument, if anyone's wondering: this argument applies to any society, capitalist or not, that does not perfectly assign rewards solely on the basis of "merit" (whatever that is). Since it is not possible to create a real-world society that does perfectly assign rewards solely on the basis of merit, this critique applies to all societies with any potential for existence and cannot be used to judge between them. In other words, yeah, I guess so, but actual communism is at least as bad, as far false meritocracy goes. [ Monday, May 29, 2006 13:31: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| My God can beat up your God! in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 08:41
Profile
Homepage
Christian texts do indicate that the Christian god is the same as the Jewish god. Muslim texts indicate that their god is the same as the Christian and Jewish god. So the later religions definitely do have reason to think that the earlier are worshipping the same god, albeit imperfectly. I think the worst that a Jew could say about a Christian or a Christian could say about a Muslim is that the later follower is following a false revelation and worshipping the same god imperfectly, as long as one assumes that the god that one tries to worship is the god that one ends up worshipping. I think Slarty is talking about a different concept of "the same god," though. His only argument has been, "Christians and Jews believe a very different set of things about the figure," which sounds much more like a descriptive analysis than a theological position. This is essentially saying, "Christianity and Judaism are different, so their gods must be functionally different, too." To which I respond: functionally, yes. Theologically, no. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Problems with Blades of Exile in Tech Support | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Monday, May 29 2006 03:26
Profile
Homepage
He was implying that one would run it on the Windows side. XP is still capable of running BoE. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suggestion for increased replay value: Add the three remaining classes in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:47
Profile
Homepage
I think I beat GF2 the same way. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Evil Cannisters? in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:44
Profile
Homepage
If a thread is more than a few days old, it's usually considered good manners not to post in it again unless you have a really compelling reason to do so. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Ancient Mystery: Solved! in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:41
Profile
Homepage
He didn't say "all fundamentalists." He simply used a plural: more than one fundamentalist. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Ghosts of Stalin in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:38
Profile
Homepage
I thought it was self-evident at this point that the Leninist-Stalinist model — because we can't really blame all of it on Lenin — was a failure. The question is where that leaves Marxism, which was a little less specific in practical means of achieving the goal. I think that Marx's critique of capitalism still stands: capitalism was horribly corrupt in his day. The problem is that the answer is a blend of socialism and capitalism within democracy, not a communist anarchy (and not the Leninist communist dictatorship). A strike, not a revolution (and then civil war), gets workers better conditions. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Shaping Item in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:23
Profile
Homepage
Does the saying, "DON'T FEED THE DARN TROLL" mean anything to you?  -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Geneforge 4 hopes: SPIDWEB PLEASE READ in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:21
Profile
Homepage
quote:No one here would mind this. Please stop being rude and unpleasant. This thread, while it may have sort of had an interesting premise (sort of), has gone nowhere good. There's absolutely no chance that Spidweb will do any of this, either, so there's not a lot of point to talking about it. Thus: -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Any Biulds for Guardians in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:17
Profile
Homepage
Proper spelling and grammar — or at least a visible effort at proper spelling and grammar — is appreciated around here. Some common sense — not creating redundant threads, not telling mods to "shut up" — is also appreciated. Direct all further discussion of optimizing the Guardian class here. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Ancient Mystery: Solved! in General | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:13
Profile
Homepage
He did say one reason, not the only reason. That's not presuming too much, I suspect. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Suggestion for increased replay value: Add the three remaining classes in Geneforge Series | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Sunday, May 28 2006 08:09
Profile
Homepage
I don't know how much my voice should count, since I don't really like GF all that much (by comparison, anyway), but I would not be opposed to adding these three. I'm not sure that I would significantly support it, but I wouldn't mind. I beat GF1 on Torment without magic, I believe. I was a Shaper without any combat or magic skills at all. (I wasn't trying to challenge myself; I just had no idea how the system worked at that point.) So it can be done, and a system like this one might encourage people to try it more. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| BoE forum header in Blades of Exile | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Saturday, May 27 2006 20:42
Profile
Homepage
Ah. Didn't know it by name. I might change this page, then. [ Saturday, May 27, 2006 20:42: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| BoE forum header in Blades of Exile | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Saturday, May 27 2006 20:04
Profile
Homepage
Um, what is the Kurnis series? *is a n00b* -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Avernum 2 part 3 help in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Saturday, May 27 2006 15:28
Profile
Homepage
1. You don't own the topics that you create. You don't get to choose when they get locked or not. Mods get to choose that. 2. Stareye is an admin. It would be best to do as he says. Cease double-posting and try to be polite. Direct any further discussion to this thread. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| oops!lock this!! in The Avernum Trilogy | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Saturday, May 27 2006 15:17
Profile
Homepage
*is unclear on what's going on* *locks anyway* -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Beams and Cutscenes in Blades of Avernum Editor | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Friday, May 26 2006 20:24
Profile
Homepage
Have you tried turning off the power source and erasing the beam projector? If that gets rid of a beam, you can just turn off the source, delete the projector, and place a new one on the same spot, all before you update the screen. If not, you have to make the player physically press a button to make the time go forward. This may not be a bad thing in a cutscene anyway, especially if it is at all long. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| Beams and Cutscenes in Blades of Avernum | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Friday, May 26 2006 20:24
Profile
Homepage
Have you tried turning off the power source and erasing the beam projector? If that gets rid of a beam, you can just turn off the source, delete the projector, and place a new one on the same spot, all before you update the screen. If not, you have to make the player physically press a button to make the time go forward. This may not be a bad thing in a cutscene anyway, especially if it is at all long. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
| A Poll for My Sake in Blades of Avernum | |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Friday, May 26 2006 09:15
Profile
Homepage
None for me, I believe. The TM scenarios I have played are NTH, RoR-BoA, Canopy, and MA, so it looks as though I missed all of them. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Smoo: Get ready to face the walls! Ephesos: In conclusion, yarr. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |