Re: [OT] Live, the Universe and Fish

Fr 28.11.03 Arien Malec the Peltast ([EMAIL PROTECTED]),
            A Priest of Makhleb,
            Crawled into REC.GAMES.ROGUELIKE.MISC at 16:36h
            And whined the following.
            It didn't last long.
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tina Hall) wrote in
> news:MSGID_2=3A2437=2F22.13 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
> > Do 27.11.03 Arien Malec the Slinger ([EMAIL PROTECTED]),
>
> I'm with Darshan here,

You're not supposed to quote more than the first line, and the
rest is no different from odd stuff in the actual post, so
where's the problem?

> plus I've never worshiped Yreetc.

That's random. I could adjust it to just insert various spellings
of 'RNG' (there are only two at present).

I've shortened it down by now. I'd just replied to this post
before that (just hadn't sent if off yet).

> >             And roared the following.
> >             It didn't last long.
>
> That last may be true for Crawl, but not for rgrm....

What? You're still roaring?

[the universe]
> So it could make sense, and not have a purpose, is the point.

I took your question theoretical, not applying to this universe
but just being about possible alternatives.

>> You're just trying to get the curve [*] back to being on-
>> topic, though, and that's cheating. ;P
>
> Is not. :P I introduced the Crawl topic by saying that Hell *was* in
> another dimension, because you had to take a portal to get there.
> *That* was the place to object to gratuitous on-topicness.

I'm a bit slow to catch on something, so I'm bound to object at a
later point, and validly so, because any point is just fine to
complain if I feel like complaining. ;P

> > [*] Incase I'm being incomprehensible again, 'get the curve' is a
> > phrase around here, something about changing behaviour or
> > subject, sort of by hanging by your fingertips, as in hard to
> > accomplish. Well, roughly anyway.
>
> I don't know of any phrase that exactly mirror that. "An abrupt
> transition" is the closest, I think. "You've made a rather abrupt
> transition to being back on track, and that's cheating."

That's not really it, though. Hmmm... It's time to adopt another
phrase from another language. English can do that well. I've got
vague memories of someone saying (in a post somewhere else) that
English eats other languages for breakfast, or something along
that line anyway.

To clarify on the actual phrase, as it's not about transition...
Imagine speeding along with a car, and there's a sudden U-turn.
If you drive off into the countryside you didn't get the curve,
if you do, skidding along the side with half the car hanging over
the ditch but somehow ending up still on the street and rolling
along, you did get the curve. Now apply that to a conversation,
or behaviour (mostly about monologues/speeches, though, when you
digress but do find your way back on topic).

> There's also the notion of a "segue", and a poor segue.

No idea what that is. My dictionaries aren't any smarter either.
Hrmpf.

>> I think I've lost my thought->word processor. (I've recently
>> been told that it's not normal not to think in words, but
>> there you go...)
>
> I don't think in words, either, I don't think. In so many
> words. Or I don't think. Could be that, too.

<g>

Evidence suggests you just have occasional lapses, that usually
result in YASD.

> I'm not sure that I think *in* anything, but thought.

An example: You go to wash your hands, the water is a little too
cold. You:
a) Think "This water is too cold."
b) Just get a sense that the water should be warmer.

>From what I've been told, adults with a normal brain should
answer 'a'. :)

Of course I just wonder where the water's gone. So happened
yesterday - they were suddenly repairing the main pipes of the
house.

> What about "hitting the curve with a cricket bat" -- does that mean
> anything?

Possibly in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

> > Ehm. I think that fresh air this afternoon didn't do me any good.
>
> Really? You seem quite lucid to me, anyway.

You got too much fresh air, too, then?

> > How about I tell you about my current character? Really crazy
> > guy. I'm keeping some of the dumps (made during the game) for the
> > messages and stuff, to do a proper report afterwards.
>
> Please do.

He's... Oh, you mean afterwards?

Don't expect a funny story, though. I'll mostly just let the
game's messages speak for themselves. (Unless Darshan agrees to
ghost-write, but little hope for that. ;) )

> > Or I show you something I stumbled across (again) in XP while
> > fiddling around with the colour settings (there's more of this
> > stuff hidden away elsewhere).
>
> XP, here, I presume, does not mean the Microsoft operating system

Of course not. XP is just this software I'm using to read/write
posts and emails. The copyright is something about 93 and 96 I
think, but by now the source is sort of free (afaik the shareware
payment still goes to the original programmer, but people are
free to fiddle around with the source).

> that would not even approach your machine with a full armada of
> highly powered machines, and 1 Gb memory chips.

? You mean they wouldn't approach my machine bringing the armada
along, or if I had the armada it'd still cover?

> > Just possibly, Peter Mandrella (the programmer of this) got too
> > much fresh air, too. :)
>
> Enough information to Google by: "CrossPoint (XP) ist ein Mail- und
> Newsreader von Peter Mandrella".

That isn't accurate, though. It's not a newsreader, merely a
simple 'Pointprogram', for Fido and some other possibly extinct -
nets. (I think there are updated versions available for Windoze
with some odd features that might make it a newsreader.)

To use it for Usenet like it is (the version I use), you'd need
some weird patch/add-on that Fred keeps telling me about. Or
someone higher up the Fido hierarchy maintains a Gateway (and XP
doesn't know it's not just handling Fido mails).

[target-option to go through items]
>> It could save life^H^Hves^H^H^Hfes<check dictionary>, though.
>
> Right the second time.

Oh dear. The noun is 'life', though. Same thing as with dwarf/
dwarves and elf/elves in plural?

> Darshan is a braver man than I. The times that I've looked into
> the Crawl code I've run screaming.

Ignorance is your shield, then. :)

> I *think* Brent has already lost his mind (seeing as he got it
> into this state from much worse). Don't tell anyone, though.

Oh, I agree. I'm seriously considering just killfiling him, as I
can't make any sense from the gibberish he posts, and he's too
full of himself to even post properly (possibly some megalomania
on being the King of Crawl or something, as often as he points
out how good he is at reading obsolete code). I don't really have
any hope for either changing.

> :-) Anyway, Darshan must be right behind.

I hope not, or at least that he stays the cuddly tentacled
monstrosity version, like other people dealing with code (Ali,
Dylan,...) instead of turning into Rodney.

Hmmm... Graeme and Mark seem nice people, too, so the latter
option isn't a must.

> I don't think it's possible to be driven *to* normalcy. You only get
> normal by refusing steadfastly to be driven anywhere

I think you've got it the other way round. Think about it, from
early on you get told "Do this, don't do that, that's wrong, this
is right." and then you end up as a normal person. Only refusing
to take part in that sheep-mentality (or don't get a big enough
dose not to doubt all that nonsense) you end up as a lunatic.

> (except by a really nice man with honorable intentions).

A Taxi-driver?

>> You know they say genious and madness lie close together? I
>> decided to go the 'crazy'-route to get there; more fun. (Or
>> maybe it's really just the fresh air, or the vitamin juice.
>> Horrible stuff, both of them.)
>
> You've also started looking at the Crawl code.

Hmmm... I'm immune to be flown (flying seems much more fun than
driving) anywhere by it, then, since I've made that decision
years ago, you only see the success, now. <bright grin>

> > Sticky Flame is Fun, though. It goes like: <cast> <snicker> <run>
> > <wait>
>
> Right. Bolt of Fire goes: <cast> <examine charred ruins> <snicker>

Ok, but the snicker doesn't fit in with that, somehow.

[YASDs]
> Hmm. One died to a plant (one more patch that I'd like would be the
> infinite loop interruptable macro, so that I can mindlessly whomp on
> plants without fear of being surrounded in the process and nibbled to
> death),

I don't understand this. How did you get nibbled to death?

> one to supidity in the mines (didn't realize that blue orc was
> an Orcish Warlord -- could have used blink/teleport/speed,
> etc.),

Aren't they dark red? Or are there even worse once? (The light
cyan ones are knights.) Now I get vague ideas that could just as
easily be hallucinations, about dark blue 'o's.

It took long enough to tell priests and wizards apart, for some
reason I thought priests should be purple and wizards green. I
still think they should, mind.

> one died of supidity in the Lair (went upstairs, saw Yaks + Hydra in
> a small cave, went downstairs, prayed to Vehumet, and *went back
> upstairs again*.).

Ehm. Can't say much to that. :)

> [using magic to go to the shop and pay for stuff]
>>> That, I do all the time (that Internet thingy again).
>>
>> Would only cost extra money, so even with that internet thingy
>> it wouldn't be available the way I want (and it'd cost time to
>> do it).
>
> Costs less, here in the States. (No state taxes, etc.).

I mean the connection to the internet costs money...

> [technology != magic]
> >> Magic. Someone's third law, or something.
> >
> > I don't understand that.
>
> Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is
> indistinguishable from magic.

Then that's just another case where these widely known phrases
aren't true/make sense/whatever. Just like the egg and the hen,
there's no question, since there were eggs long before some
chicken-ancestor popped out of one.

> > Hmmm... There's something missing here. Oh, yes...
> > <tong between teeth> teee ehn <^H> ee ehn ah
>
> That, I don't get.

't' 'n' <remove last letter> 'i' 'n' 'a'

Upon originally writing that post I did stop to think, hey,
there's something missing, ah, my name... Was in a silly enough
mood to actually post about it. The confusing bit may be that I
wrote 't' in English, the other letters with the English
description of the German pronounciation.

Tina